Sony’s goal is to be the third biggest handset maker

Sony, company behind the Sony XPERIA Z1, is looking to become the third biggest handset maker in the world.

Speaking to the Wall Street Journal, Senior Vice President, Head of Sales and Marketing,
Sony Mobile Communications, Dennis van Schie, said that Sony plans to achieve this “not in 10 years’ time, but a lot sooner.”

He adds, “The whole industry has been saying, why did Sony not do what Apple did? Why did it take so long to break the silos? I can say the change in leadership and investments has led to the fact that silos are broken so we can become mobile-centric.”

Speaking about technology, he said, “Even if we thought we were part of Sony, all the hard-core technological assets that were available—applications, services, the hardware, like the sensors—were not really made available to us.”

Speaking about distribution, he said, “Where we leverage—and this is a big change from the past—the sales and marketing infrastructure of Sony. For example, in India. I was responsible for product development on the technological side at Sony Ericsson. We had a team of 25, 30 people, and to get to the mom-and-pop stores out there in a massive, complex and vast country like India is very risky.

“Sony Electronics have 650 people on the ground. Over 10 years they have built this network for selling TVs, PlayStation, cameras. Now, when we merged … we suddenly see a massive growth in India.”

Speaking about China, he said, “Leveraging the fact that Sony China has a very strong and solid footprint in the market with a much wider coverage than [Sony Ericsson] had. We were only present in roughly 30 cities in China. Sony China is everywhere.”

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